Providence Station was built in 1986 during a project to remove elevated tracks from downtown Providence. It has full-length high-level platforms on all passenger tracks and is fully handicapped accessible.

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Two of Amtrak's passenger rail routes serve the station: the Acela Express and the Northeast Regional. The Acela Express is the United States' only high-speed rail service; the Regional is a slower local service. Both connect Providence with the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington D.C.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), also serves Providence station. The Providence/Stoughton commuter rail line's southern terminus is located at Wickford Junction, two stops south of Providence. The Providence/Stoughton Line provides commuter service to towns between the airport, Providence and Boston, sharing track with Amtrak trains. In a 2013 count, Providence averaged 2,325 inbound MBTA passengers on weekdays, making it the busiest station on the system outside of the downtown Boston terminals.[2]

Providence's first railroad station was built in 1835 by the Boston and Providence Rail Road at India Point.[4] The Providence and Stonington built a depot at Crary Street in South Providence in 1838, and the two were soon connected by a ferry service.[4] The first through service stopped at Union Station, a brick edifice built in 1847 by the Providence & Worcester, Providence & Stonington, and Boston & Providence Railroads. It was designed by 21-year-old architect Thomas Alexander Tefft.[4] This building was lost to fire in 1896 and was replaced by a larger Union Station, completed in 1898 by the New Haven Railroad. It consisted of five large brick structures, which still form the northern side of Kennedy Plaza in the center of Downtown Providence.

In 1986, the Northeast Corridor through Providence was relocated north to free up land from a mass of train tracks that had hemmed in downtown Providence. The new and smaller station, designed by Marilyn Taylor of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, was built across Gaspee Street from the Rhode Island State House. The five tracks and two platforms are located below ground level underneath the station building.

Amtrak has served Providence since its inception in 1971, with Northeast Corridor trains from Boston to New York and Washington. Local commuter service - both intrastate service and service to Boston - has been intermittent during this era. After Penn Central discontinued their New London to Boston commuter train in 1972, Rhode Island sponsored a short lived Westerly to Providence service (which lasted until 1979) in addition to the MBTA's Providence to Boston service.[5] Sunday service ended in October 1977 and off-peak and Saturday service ended in April 1979 due to Rhode Island's limited subsidies; rush-hour service ceased on February 20, 1981.[5] Rush hour commuter service began again (to the new station) in February 1988, with off-peak service added in December 2000 and weekend service added in July 2006.[5] A new layover facility for MBTA commuter trains, located north of the station in Pawtucket, opened in 2006, allowing the MBTA to increase service to the city. Service was further extended to T.F. Green Airport in December 2010 and to Wickford Junction in April 2012.[5]

It is a simple building in the brutalist style, with a large square clocktower. Although largely subterranean and lacking the grand scale that was possible in 1898, the station has been positively received by critics. Local architectural historian William McKenzie Woodward lauded the building for its aesthetics, calling its saucer dome "an obvious yet very gracious gesture toward the State House".[6] In 2010, Architect praised the forethought of the designers in planning for the revitalization of Providence's downtown, saying that "[i]ts design accommodated the complex geometries of a circulation pattern oriented toward the Capitol and a structure aligned with the tracks, while its splayed plan opened out to what was then an imagined city, one that Providence eventually made happen."[7]

Kennedy Plaza, the main hub for RIPTA bus service, is located 0.25 miles (0.40 km) to the south along Exchange Street. Five RIPTA routes, including the R-Line rapid bus service, operate directly to Providence Station. Four routes stop on Gaspee Street on the north side of the station: